Timorem Vincere
by Tarame
Summary: [Tales of the Abyss] To overcome a phobia, it takes courage, determination, and heck of a lot of exposure to whatever you fear. Short, connected stories. Guytalia.
1. Exhausted

_So, I decided to try my hand at some TotA. I'm not too happy how this turned out—not enough fluff—but anyhoo, I'll try to improve. This is a series of short, related chapters about GuyxNatalia. Cuz I love them. Well, I was thinking about sprinting through long dungeons, and this kind of sprouted from there. More chapters later maybe. O.o_

(oOo)

The dungeons had rapidly becoming longer as of late, and even though she considered herself to be in prime shape, she had found herself growing more and more tired.

The party ran through the stone labyrinth impatiently, stopping only to slay whatever enemies were unfortunate enough to stay across their paths. Luke led at the front of the formation, short hair flopping in and out of his face. Tear stuck close by on one side, Mieu clinging to her shoulder, with Guy on the other, effortlessly keeping up the pace. Jade, despite his constant allusions to his senescence, glided through effortlessly without breaking a sweat. Anise, perched comfortably atop Tokunaga, was rather enjoying the ride. But Natalia was lagging behind, a little bit more each minute.

They had praised her at the abandoned factory for her surprising resilience in battle, but all in all, she was still a princess. These people had spent all their lives training, and even though she had taken regular archery lessons and jogged often enough to keep her figure, she couldn't keep up.

A few enemies stopped, curiously regarding the party before deciding to attack. Without breaking stride, the party entered battle. Luke and Guy flew forward, finessed slashes destroying the enemies' guard; Anise charged to the nearest enemy and allowed her doll to brutally beat it to the ground; Jade and Tear began casting rapidly, incantations clear and powerful. Natalia drew an arrow, strung it, and let it fly, her shoulder snapping back with force. She winced, dodged a curious enemy, and shot another arrow. Archery wasn't considered the most strenuous type of fighting, but even so, she felt drained.

The battle ended, and it was good Tear had been so alert, because Natalia wasn't up for the tiring rush of healing artes. They set off running again, down a narrow corridor she thought would never end. Were they noticing her exhaustion?

The corridor was a dead end. All they got from it was a Lemon Gel in a corner chest. They reversed direction, leaving her at the front of the group. She jogged valiantly, not wanting to slow down the group. A different path this time. She began to notice how cold the dungeon air was.

The staircase was intimidating, looming and steep, but she tried not to let it bother her. At this point, she would do anything to lie down and rest for a few hours, or at least a few minutes, but they were in too much of a hurry to waste time with that. She started up the stairs, picking up the pace to encourage herself. Her legs were burning, as were her lungs.

She was aware of the party behind her, slowly overcoming her feeble pace. She sorely wished she had exercised more in Baticul.

A warm fluffy bed…a fire….a nice blanket…

All it took was a moment of blissful ignorance, and her feet lost her grip on the stairs.

She slipped, felt herself falling backwards, onto open air. She wondered how badly it would hurt to hit the steeply slanted stairs.

Probably very much.

There was a moment of heart-escaping distress, and then…

She did not hit the stairs, but something soft.

She tilted her head up, looking backwards to see her unexpected savior. Startled blue eyes stared at her. With a lurch, she realized that the party had been expecting her to slip just as much as she had, which was to say not at all, and she had fallen backwards _onto Guy_, who had caught her without even realizing it.

She glanced down. He was gently supporting her, hands on her waist. Oh, dear. Oh, wow.

"Um…." she said tentatively, tilting her head all the way back to look at him. "Guy…." Her nose brushed against his. This time, _he_ fell backwards, out of shock. Unfortunately, there was no one to catch him, and unfortunately, no one to support her.

So she did end up falling after all.

But he made a good cushion.

That much, she was thankful for.

(oOo)

_Not very fluffy, huh? Well, I'll write more! It's get better! CHAAARGE:D_


	2. Typical

Uwaah! Thanks for the lovely reviews! To answer a few things, I imagined several settings, but in the end, I liked it better as a more generic place. I figured it would fit better in the timeline if it could be almost anywhere, so I decided to let the reader choose the setting. And…erm…enemies…well, just standard fodder, I suppose. Overall, I guess that was pretty lazy. Anyhoo, here's the next chapter. Woohoo! This is later, I suppose, in the Absorption Gate.

_**Spoiler alert** for up to the Absorption Gate._

(oOo)

When they entered the Absorption Gate, she had managed to convince herself that everything would be all right.

It would be like any other battle. Granted, it would be a battle against her friend's brother and fiancé's mentor, the man she had seen so often the Fabre courtyard, good-naturedly sparring with Luke and smiling widely at his protégé's feeble attempts to overpower him, but it was still just a battle. By this point, she had fought hundreds of battles. Killing did not frighten her. As they entered the mysteriously lighted Gate, she gazed around to watch her teammates. Luke was strong. Tear was strong. She would also be strong.

That was before the ancient ground had crumbled beneath her feet, and the team had been forcibly wrenched apart.

She remembered a swooping feeling of terror, and a dizzying fall, and then coming to consciousness on a different path. She stared for a moment at the empty passage, winding aimlessly in front of her, completely silent, and then she was seized with panic.

The wretched earthquake! They were gone now, flung to some other part of the dungeon, and she was alone. Could she do it? She had managed to find courage in her friends' determination, but the reservoir had run unexpectedly dry. What if she met up with Van on her own? What if she was trapped down here, while they left back for home? She was never the best navigator in the endless dungeon passages; she usually just followed the rest of her group.

She couldn't do it.

For a moment, she lost her composure, letting out a dry, stifled sob. She wanted so hard to be as strong as everyone else, but with no one else around, her façade had no meaning. She was hopeless.

"Natalia?" came a startled voice from behind her. "Are you all right?"

She snapped around. Guy had been sitting patiently behind her, but was obviously concerned.

"Fine!" she said loudly. Her voice sounded fake. She quickly drew her hand across her face, trying to wipe away the traces of tears that had begun to form. Guy appeared slightly nonplussed, but stood, looking slightly awkward. He looked as though he wished he could offer his hand to pull her up off the ground.

"Are you ready to go?"

She blinked. "Go? But—"

"We're split up from the others, but I think if we follow this path, we'll meet up with them. That would make sense, architecturally."

She stood, nodding.

"Natalia, what's wrong?"

The problem with Guy was that he had too much sympathy. She could already feel herself about to break down, just because he seemed so honest, sincerely compassionate.

She sniffed. "Nothing."

He just sighed.

"I'm just…a little worried. About…well, you know."

He nodded knowingly. "It's tough, but don't worry. You're strong; we can make it through here."

How ironic. He thought was strong; she knew she was weak.

He smiled at her as if he knew what she was thinking. He probably did.

They set off down the single path, a slow jog going down the downward spiral. A few times, she saw the other groups on separate faraway paths, and invariably felt her heart lurch: Luke and Tear, looking rather comfortable in each other's company; and Jade and Anise, easily coasting through the dungeon. Both times, the other group waved, and they waved back. She felt a new surge of confidence. She and Guy would make it through to meet them.

A group of enemies caught them off guard—tentacle monsters and a mechanical foe. A rather large group, which made her nervous considering the rather depleted party. She sprinted backwards, releasing a flurry of arrows while Guy, surrounded by green tendrils, sliced viciously at the enemies. She ran again, shooting off another round of ammunition; one arrow pierced a roper's torso solidly, causing it to collapse, lifeless.

She glanced at Guy, surprised to see he was in poor condition. Several monsters' corpses lay scattered around him, but he was panting and struggling to ward off several monsters at once. She immediately began casting Cure, hoping to make it in time.

She was helpless when the mechanical beast attacked her from behind, knocking her to the ground. It seemed to growl, clamping onto her arm fiercely. Icy pain rushed up to her shoulder. She struggled, using her free arm in an attempt to stab it with her bow, but it was clumsy and ineffectual. She shouldn't be here, lying on the ground helplessly when Guy was in need of severe healing. She had been careless.

The monster cried out in alarm, and she felt it fall limp, to the ground, freeing her arm. Guy stood above her, panting, but victorious.

"Are you okay?"

She couldn't help but smile. That was so typical, concerned about her when he was the injured one. She braced herself on her arms, to push herself to her feet, but an unexpected pain shivered though her arm. She winced. She was more injured than she though.

"Natalia?" Again, he was far too concerned for her and not enough for himself.

"It's just a mild injury," Natalia murmured, trying to pull herself to her feet; her arm buckled beneath her weight. Scarcely before she knew what was happening, Guy caught her hand and pulled her to her feet. He let go, embarrassed.

"Thank you," she said. Poor Guy, making himself uncomfortable just for her own needs. She promptly began casting Heal. A healthy glow blossomed in the air, and he appeared revitalized.

"You should have healed yourself first," he said pleasantly.

Typical.

(oOo)

_I'm not super happy with this. I thought it seemed angsty in the beginning, and the dialogue didn't fit my taste. Well, this popped into my head because I was unhappy with the game's transition from the party being split up into just going through the dungeon with nothing in between. Also, I wondered what would happen if the enemies weren't conveniently easier once the party was smaller._


End file.
